North Kivu: 25 prisoners released from Kakwangura prison by presidential pardon

Butembo, May 21^st, 2025 (CPA) – Twenty-five (25) inmates of Kakwangura prison in Butembo, North Kivu, in the east of the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), beneficiaries of a presidential pardon, were released on Wednesday, during a ceremony, by the provincial governor’s principal coordinator. ‘We must therefore recognise dear happy beneficiaries of this pardon, a pardon that shows that the President of the Republic wants everyone in this country to work to improve the conditions of the community, to participate in development, to participate in patriotic efforts. The ideal is not to put you in prison, the ideal is to see you working for development’, said Éric Kisa, the provincial governor’s senior coordinator for the administration of justice. He hoped that the time spent in prison would enable the beneficiaries to make a commitment to the Congolese nation not to re-offend, stressing that ‘the misfortune will be worse than what they have experienced’. The prisoners benefiting from the presidential pardon thanked the President of the Republic for this act, in particular Evariste Mumbere Tsongo, who has been in Butembo urban prison since 2022 and had been sentenced for 5 years. ‘I am really very happy and I sincerely thank the President of the Republic. I arrived in 2022 from Mbau, I was among those who transported a person who was drunk and died in our hands’. There were 5 of us and we were taken first to the auditorium and I was sentenced to 5 years. Other speakers, including Alain Ngoy Milambwe, the public prosecutor at the Butembo High Court, and Mowa Baeki Telly Roger, the town’s chief superintendent, advised the beneficiaries of the pardon to behave like worthy sons of the country and never return to prison. The Butembo Kakwangura central prison, which has a capacity of 250, currently has 1,466 inmates who live off the generosity of people of goodwill and associations.